The course of true love never did run smooth — at least, not on television.

When you have a great romance like Ross and Rachel on “Friends” or Carrie and Mr. Big on “Sex and the City,” you can count on turmoil and misunderstandings for seasons galore. If a prime-time couple is happy, the thinking goes, who’ll want to watch?

Me, for one. After a week of too much information about David Letterman’s past relationships with staffers and Jon and Kate Gosselin’s endless image wars, I was ready for the kind of hi-def marital bliss that arrived Thursday night with Pam and Jim’s wedding on “The Office.”

Defying the truism that matrimony ruins a TV couple’s charm, the NBC sitcom let Pam — the lovable former secretary who used to be engaged to someone else — and Jim — the wry salesman who hid his feelings for her behind the guise of friendship — get hitched. The one-hour episode provided the sort of warm and squirmily uncomfortable moments that fans have come to expect from “The Office.”

TV usually opts for steamy, silly or star-crossed when two characters fall for each other. But Jim’s lovely line at the rehearsal dinner — “A lot of people told me I was crazy to wait this long for a date with a girl who I worked with. But I think even then, I knew that I was waiting for my wife” — is about as close as fiction can get to expressing the real tenderness of two people starting a lifetime together with optimism and multitiered cake.

In honor of Pam and Jim’s nuptials, here are 10 of my favorite TV husbands and wives. May they live happily ever after in syndication.

Marge and Homer Simpson (“The Simpsons”). When blue-haired Marge said “I do” to bumbling Homer, she knew she was in for a lifetime of him yelling “D’oh!” But she’s stood by him because his heart — if not his instincts, id or intellect — is in the right place.

Lucy and Ricky Ricardo (“I Love Lucy”). The housewife yearning for showbiz stardom provoked one slapstick crisis per episode for her bandleader spouse. But it was always a given that he’d find life impossibly dull without her and that she’d be just as bored without him to amaze and outwit.

Eric and Tami Taylor (“Friday Night Lights”). Coping with work stress, time management issues, difficult teens and a new baby is the stuff of ordinary life, yet this football coach and high school principal make multi-tasking look glamorous. Their responsibilities never get in the way of the fact they’re still wildly attracted to each other.

Monica and Chandler Bing (“Friends”). The sweetest part of these longtime pals getting hitched? After years of seeing each other at their most obsessive (her compulsive orderliness, his insecurities), they fell in love because of their weird quirks, not despite them.

Trista and Ryan Sutter (“The Bachelorette”). Yes, dating shows are an awful way to find lasting companionship. But these two gorgeous specimens actually seemed in it for the right reasons and have forged a rarity — a successful reality-TV marriage.

Heathcliff and Clair Huxtable (“The Cosby Show”). America’s favorite nuclear family of the 1980s was led by this long-wed duo whose playful bantering gave hope to middle-aged marrieds everywhere that more anniversaries could mean even more fun.

Darrin and Samantha Stephens (“Bewitched”). Dick Sargent, the second Darrin, was too disapproving. Dick York, the original Darrin, captured the flustered husband’s underlying appreciation for his wife’s magic powers — the only kind that TV wives could wield pre-feminism.

Paul and Jamie Buchman (“Mad About You”). Maybe you consider these Manhattan yuppies from the 1990s the most annoying TV spouses. But their determination to overanalyze everything about being together was oddly endearing — especially to other neurotic yuppies.

Tara and Max (“United States of Tara”). Now that’s what you call devotion — a husband willing to cope with one wife and her alter egos, as long as she can find some inner peace through exploring her multiple personalities.